Joe Knows...

If you ever had the pleasure of watching Bo Jackson play football or baseball, or you remember anything TV ads from the late 80s or early 90s, I’m guessing my “Joe Knows” phrase immediately reminded you of Nike’s Bo Jackson campaign. And just in case it’s not ringing a bell, let’s take a short walk down memory lane…

Bo Jackson was an amazing two-sport athlete at Auburn University and made an immediate impact with both professional teams he played for, The Kansas City Royals and the (then) Los Angeles Raiders. As a kid watching Bo play either sport, it was the closest thing I had ever seen to a real life superhero. He wasn’t just good at both sports, he was one of the best in the NFL and MLB at the time, and I’m convinced that he would have gone down as one of the best baseball players in history had a football injury not cut his career far too short. I’ve always believed that Nike nailed it with their commercials suggesting that Bo could do anything!

With that in mind, let’s think back to the example I just shared about the fellow who was promoted and the one who wasn’t… And let’s pretend the one who ended up in that lead role was named Joe - because he was! Joe had worked in that facility since God was a boy. Well, maybe not quite that long but he would have been fine with us believing that. He knew just about all there was to know about every piece of equipment in the department and what to do anytime something went wrong. When it came to technical expertise, there were few in the nearly twenty years I was around him that had anything close to the understanding of those machines that he had. Unlike Bo Jackson though, there were a few things that Joe didn’t know; one of which was how not to piss off nearly anyone he interacted with on a routine basis - and that was without being in a position that increased the ego accompanying his skill set.

Before you start throwing stones at me, I need to add that I really did like Joe (most of the time). And I did truly respect him for how much pride he took in the parts he produced. That said, his skill with the machines didn’t necessarily translate to how he worked with everyone in his department, before or after he was promoted to that lead role. I worked side-by-side with him in my early twenties and knew he could be a solid resource whenever I ran into an issue but I usually saved that as my absolute last resort just so I wouldn’t have to deal with his nonsense. And I wasn’t alone. Fast forward 10 to 15 years with him now being the boots-on-the-ground authority in the department and very little had changed. If we were to consider The Many Benefits of Internal Promotion, the only one that article listed that would have been even close to being captured would have been saving a little bit of time in getting an external candidate up to speed. It certainly didn’t increase engagement with the rest of the folks in the department, several bid on other jobs to get out of the department, and I’ll let you guess as how just those two things impacted overall performance; think back to how increased engagement can yield that extra 57% discretionary effort and remember it works both ways…

I’ll stress again here that Joe wasn’t a bad guy, he just hadn’t been provided with the tools he needed to effectively lead a team. I only use that example because it’s one I lived through. I have no doubt that you’ve seen similar scenarios unfold in front of you. The point I want you to consider here is that the team members weren’t the only miserable ones in this equation; Joe was usually as frustrated being in that role. I’ve rarely met anyone who doesn’t want to do the very best they can and he was no different. He had excelled in other areas but this required a different kind of skill, one that he hadn’t been trained for. Joe didn’t stay in that role long term, causing the position to be filled yet again. While it wasn’t the case for him, many folks leave an organization altogether when this happens - and they take all their technical experience with them!

Transitioning from being one of the best do’ers to leading an entire team of do’ers is always tough. The skills necessary are very different and I’ve rarely seen companies effectively prepare someone for this kind of change. But even when the tools are in place, there’s often an internal battle we face when moving from one of the guys to being the boss so that’s worth taking a look at before laying out some specific steps we can take to build a strong succession plan that utilizes of best team members, wherever they’re best suited…